Wedding Dress and Men’s Ties for Alice

The dress has a fitted and boned bodice with soft v-shaped neckline and invisible zip back closure. The waistline is decorated with a double loop of hand beading in Swarovski diamante stones with echoes scattered all down the train. The dress was created in six layers of silk chiffon, with a light ‘crinkle’ texture for extra floaty-ness, over a silk satin base. Netting held out the shape of the skirt. Each chiffon layer was cut shorter than the one beneath creating graduated petals on the skirt. The edge of each chiffon layer was finished with a roll hem that made them curl and frill a little to emphasise the layering. We used bright white over the skirt and bleached white (pale ivory) for the layer that comes up to the neckline to be softer near Alice’s face.

Alice commissioned a tie and hankie for her groom and his attendants.

Each tie was made in silver satin to match the bridesmaids dresses and finished with a white silk lining. Silver satin hankies finished the look perfectly.

You’d never guess from these pics that Alice had just had a baby just a few months before! Alice also had her grown-up bridesmaids’ and flowergirls’ dresses made, see here for more pictures

The original design sketch for Alice’s dress

Alice wrote: Thank you so much for all the hard work and stunning detail you put into making every dress, tie, hankie and knickers!! I felt amazing on the day and it’s all down to you. Thank you so much.Lots of love Alice, Richard and Esme

We used Swarovski diamante stones in a mix of shapes including oval, round, square-cut, marquise and drop shape to create Alice’s ultra sparkley detailing. The work took 42 hours to complete and used £700 worth of Swarovski crystal stones.

I created a diamante buckle to finish the waistline of Alice’s dress and to be something lovely to see when Alice turned her back.

The buckle fastened across the zip with a hook to make dressing easy on the day.

Detail of the train layers beading.

Each layer of the skirt had a pretty motif hand applied in diamante stones to echo the sparkle

Making Alice’s Dress

Fitting Pictures

Alice at her very first fitting in the ‘toile’ or trial run in cheap fabric.

At her second fitting Alice tried on the dress in the real fabrics for the first time.

On the left is Alice at an intermediate fitting and the two pictures on the right are her final fitting in the finished dress. The picture on far right shows how the train hooks up for dancing.

Detail of the waistline beading in progress.

All finished and ready to go.

After her final fitting I steamed Alice’s dress to perfection and prepared it to be collected. The dress has been stuffed with tissue paper to hold its shape and prevent creasing whilst it travels. Alice was also provided with a long, waterproof, gown-bag to protect the dress

Detail of the wrist loop so that Alice could pick up the train herself for walking across grass etc. A ribbon bow and diamante sparkle to echo the detailing provide a pretty finish to this feature.

Alice wanted a snow-white dress but was worried that the bright white colour would wash her out so we used the layering of the dress to good effect. The very top layer of chiffon was actually a pale ivory (called ‘bleached white) instead of the same ‘optic white’ of the other layers. You can just about see the difference in these pictures though the effect was very subtle. This meant a slightly warmer tone was nearest to Alice’s face while keeping the dress a lovely clean white.

The grooms tie was made special by the addition of three tiny Swarovski diamante stones, hidden on the back, to match his wife’s wedding dress.